Volunteer
Apart from direct financial help, there is a range of practical tasks in which community volunteers of all ages and levels of fitness can be involved:
- Helping with bird counts — If you are experienced in listening to birds and recognising calls,then you might like to help the Trust with its annual bird counts. This involves a long morning, day or over-night walk in the forest, visiting monitoring points and recording 10 minute bird counts. If you aren't experienced but would like to be, you might like to partner up with someone from the Trust to learn more about bird counts. Contact: Ian Wilson, 09 401 9056
- Kiwi call monitoring — Two evenings every year during May-June we listen for kiwi calls from points in the forest, to monitor the kiwi population. You need good hearing and warm clothes. Even if you are not familiar with kiwi calls, you can easily learn about kiwi listening from Trust members or from the New Zealand Kiwi Foundation, which holds training workshops each year shortly before the monitoring period. Contact: Ian Wilson, 09 401 9056
You can listen to kiwi calls here, first the male, and then the female.
- Monitoring tracking tunnels — Tracking cards are set out one day and retrieved the next to monitor pest numbers. A good level of physical fitness and ability to navigate off-track with map and compass are required.
Contact: John Dawn, 09 407 4790
- Invertebrate monitoring — The trust plans to monitor populations of insects and kauri snails, to determine the effects of predator removal. Small invertebrate monitoring began in 2008, using small pots set into the ground as pit-fall traps. These need to be set out and then collected and sorted from time to time. An interest in invertebrate biology would be an advantage.
Contact: Gary Bramley, 09 405 0074
- Checking traps — Intensive trapping programmes are one of the most effective ways of protecting threatened species in the forest. Some of the more accessible stoat traps (presently line 10) are serviced by a roster of volunteers. A reasonable level of fitness is required. Contact: John Dawn, 09 407 4790
If you'd like to help, phone the person listed above or contact us through this website.